The Lead: Heading into tonight, the Grizzlies and Bobcats had each played a league-high 8 games decided by three points or less (Griz 4-4, Bobcats 3-5). This was not one of those nights.
This was the first true rout of the season for the Grizzlies. An earlier 20-point win against the Minnesota Timberwolves hovered in the teens until well into the fourth quarter. But tonight, the Grizzlies overcame a slow start offensively to build a 23-point lead at the half and then overcame another brief offensive hiccup at the start of the second half to build a 35-point lead.
- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- O.J. Mayo found his shooting stroke tonight, with a game-high 24 points off the bench.
Along the way, there were explosions of highlight-reel plays for the Grizzlies. Late in the third quarter, the Grizzlies scored three fastbreak baskets in four possessions: Rudy Gay connected on a reverse dunk off a steal and alley-oop feed from Mike Conley. Then Conley led Gay on a break and Gay streaks past the Bobcats defense for another dunk. Two possessions later, another Conley steal started a break in which a Gay alley-oop pass was turned into a finger-roll (!?!) lay-up by Mayo. This sequence pushed the Grizzlies lead from 21 to 27 and effectively ended the game.
Another fastbreak trifecta happened midway through the fourth quarter: First an alley-oop from Mayo to Darrell Arthur that Arthur finished with a thunderous one-handed dunk. Then a Mayo lay-up in transition in which he brought the ball behind his back and finished, twisting, over a Bobcats defender. Two possessions later, a Gay block led to another alley-oop, this time Gay feeding Arthur for another big dunk. This sequence pushed the lead to 33 and, anticipating a Bobcats timeout that didn’t come, Mike Conley and (I think) other players on the Griz bench ran onto the court to celebrate, getting the most comical technical foul we’re likely to see this season. The Grizzlies ended up with 31 fastbreak points on the night.
The Grizzlies needed a game like this and, with things coming easy, the team created something of an offensive roadmap: Good shots were funneled to the team’s three most-talented scorers — Zach Randolph (8-16), Gay (8-15), and Mayo (10-15) — while both point guards registered more assists than field-goal attempts (Mike Conley: 9:6, Greivis Vasquez 6:3). There are some nights, obviously, when a good match-up or a hot hand should lead to Conley being more of a primary scorer. But, on average, the best scorers on this team are not at that position.
And even more than Conley, getting more judicious shot selection from Vasquez and Tony Allen seemingly lead to a more effective attack: On the season, this duo has averaged 8 field-goal attempts in 22 combined minutes. Tonight, they took only 5 shots in 30 combined minutes, funneling more off-the-bench shots to Mayo, where they belong.
The win adds to what is now a season-high four-game win streak.
